เข้าสู่ระบบATHENA POV:"This is not about sex, I absolutely am in love with you. And I do not care if you are older than me, Athena. All I know is that I cannot stop thinking about you. I cannot stop wanting you. I cannot stop dreaming about you. Every time you walk into a room, I forget how to breathe. Every time you argue with me, I want to kiss you. Every time you leave, I count the minutes until you come back."He is so close now that I can feel his breath on my face. His blue eyes are dark and earnest and full of hope."Tell me you do not feel this," he says. "Tell me and I will walk away and I will never bring it up again."I open my mouth to lie.Nothing comes out.I cannot lie to him. I cannot tell him I do not feel this, because I do. I feel it every time I look at him, every time I think about him, every time I pretend that I do not care.I grab him by the back of the neck and instead of pushing him away I kiss him.******MAXWELL'S POV:She kisses me like she is angry about it, like
ATHENA'S POV:I am in the gym at Ashcroft Manor as I gave myself an off day, punching a bag that has Kier Thornwell's face taped to it, and I am not sure if this counts as therapy or violence or some strange combination of both, but it feels good and that is all that matters right now.The bag swings back and forth with each hit, the taped on photograph crinkling under my knuckles. Kier's smug smile is starting to peel off at the edges, and I take a certain satisfaction in that. This is the man who made my sister in law's life a living hell for three years she had lived with him.I hate him. I hate him with a fierceness that surprises me sometimes, because I did not even like Celestine, not really, not beyond the polite nods and forced smiles of family gatherings, but that was then and she is my family now. She is my brother's wife, the mother of his unborn child, and she is one of the strongest people I have ever met.And Kier Thornwell tried to destroy her.So I punch his face. Over
MAXWELL'S POV:I lean against the conference table and laugh to myself.She said it did not mean anything. She looked me in the eye and lied to my face and walked out like she was not shaking, like her hands were not trembling, like she had not just come undone around me in a way that no one has ever come undone around me before.Athena Ashcroft is the most infuriating woman I have ever met. She is cold and crafty and she argues with every word that comes out of my mouth. She treats me like I am a child who does not know what he is doing. She acts like she is better than me, smarter than me and more qualified than me.And she is. She is smarter. She is more qualified. And that is part of why I cannot stop thinking about her.I have been circling her for months, although it was not intentionally, not at first. But somewhere along the way, the arguments stopped being about business and started being about something else. The bickering stopped being annoying and started being foreplay. T
ATHENA'S POV: He leans down and sucks hard on my nipple, biting just enough to make me cry out. One hand covers my mouth as he fucks me mercilessly. “Security guard is just down the hall,” he says, voice low and rough. “So you need to be quiet.” I bite his palm. He laughs darkly and pulls my hair with his other hand, yanking my head back as he rails me even harder. The table shakes. My moans are muffled against his hand but I can’t stop them. He feels incredible, thick, hard, relentless. He pulls out suddenly, flips me onto my stomach, and yanks my hips up. He slams back in from behind, one hand fisting my hair, the other slapping my ass hard. The sting blooms into heat and I push back against him, meeting every brutal thrust. “God, look at this ass,” he groans, slapping it again. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to fuck you like this.” “Then stop talking and do it,” I snap, even as pleasure coils tighter in my belly. He fucks me like he hates me and loves me at the same
ATHENA'S POV:I do not know who moves first. Maybe me, maybe him or maybe we both move at the same time, pulled together by something stronger than logic, something that has been building between us for months, something that I have been pretending I do not feel.One moment we are arguing about Drakon. The next moment I have him pinned against the conference table, my hands fisted in his shirt with my mouth on his.He kisses me back almost immediately, hungrily, like he has been waiting for this just as long as I have. His hands find my hips and pull me closer and I make a sound, something between a moan and a gasp, and he swallows it with his mouth."You are so annoying," I say against his lips, biting the bottom one."You started this," he says, voice already rough."I am finishing it."I push him down onto the table. He goes willingly, his back hitting the polished wood, his eyes wide and dark and full of something that looks like want. I climb on top of him, straddling his hips, a
ATHENA'S POV:I have been circling Maxwell Valancourt for months now, like a cat who is not sure if she wants to fight the other cat or mate with it, and honestly I am exhausted by the whole thing.He is infuriating. That is the first thing you need to know about Maxwell Valancourt. He is tall and handsome and charming and he knows it, and he uses his charm like a weapon, like a shield, like a way of getting what he wants without ever having to actually work for it. He walks into a room and everyone smiles at him. He makes a joke and everyone laughs. He proposes a business strategy and everyone nods along because he is a Valancourt, because his father built this empire, because his sister is married to my brother and no one wants to cause trouble between the families.But I am not everyone. I am Athena Ashcroft, and I do not smile at men just because they are handsome, and I do not laugh at jokes that are not funny, and I do not nod along to business strategies that are stupid.And Ma







